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Letters to the Editor
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This is a public forum to allow our readers to express their personal views. All letters posted represent the opinions and perspectives of each individual writer and do not necessarily reflect those of the Pagosa Daily Post or its staff.
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| | | | Posted 9/1/10 | | | | Praise for Skywerx | | Jayne Conwell | | | | Thanks to Bill Hudson for his article in regards to Skywerx Industries. I have been a customer for most of their business life and have been amazed at the quality of customer service they provide. They are two young men that have a work ethic that should be commended, not threatened by someone trying to get rich at the expense of taxpayers. | | | | Help Jim McQuiggin Build His House | | Cindy Galabota | | | Please join us Saturday for a "build day" to help our partner family of House 21 acquire his sweat equity hours.
Jim McQuiggin Build Day is Saturday, September 11 from 8:30am-3:30pm.
Jim and his family need your help. He needs a total of 300 volunteer hours from friends and family. Here's your chance to make new friends and become part of the Habitat for Humanity Family!
Please RSVP to the Habitat office at 970-264-6960. Hurry: space is limited to 15 volunteers. All volunteers who work "give" their volunteer hours to Jim as part of his sweat equity. Read Jim's article in the Pagosa Sun here.
Volunteers must be 18 or older or, if you are 16 or 17, you can work alongside a parent. New volunteers may fill out the necessary forms at the build site on September 11. Lunch will be provided. Specific skills are not required — hands on learning!
Come support a great organization and a great partner! Have fun! Meet new friends! Learn new skills! If you would like to help Jim with his hours but construction isn't your strength, there are other volunteer opportunities available... like making lunch! Call us to learn how you can make Jim and his family's dream a reality: 970- 264-6960. | | | | Thanks for the Response | | Janet Valdez | | | I sure appreciate Bob Hart's response to my previous letter. I do hope that the Town and County Leaders can get together and act soon to get another grocer in for competition and employment. Having one on the east side would definitely give Koger a run for their money!
Thank you again, Bob. | | | |
| | | | Posted 8/31/10 | | | | Stop the Bleeding | | Bob Hart | | | In response to Janet Valdez’s “The Kroger Monopoly” letter: you are so right, we are bleeding and we must stop the bleeding.
My suggestion of the tax incentives was not at all about helping Kroger. I am not about bailouts or helping big companies. I am about private sector jobs and the health of our community.
My suggestion was to slow down the bleeding and help our community by saving private sector jobs, keeping downtown looking “open” not closed and keeping convenience for our locals and tourists for a short period of time until our Community can develop a plan for that space or another business opens there.
Kroger’s decision to close the store is strictly financial — they are not making money there. Their decision to close benefits them and hurts our community. A short term incentive (unlikely they would take it anyway) may mean we keep some jobs until a new plan can be made.
Buying time is not the long term answer but it may currently be the best immediate action to take for the long term benefit of the community. | | | |
| | | | Posted 8/30/10 | | | | The Kroger Monopoly | | Janet Valdez | | | In regards to Bob Hart's recent opinion piece: Please do not offer incentives to City Market / Kroeger to stay open another two years, Mr. Hart! They own the building and there is no way they are going to ever sell it to another grocery chain. Two years will not make a difference! Then what? It still closes and we are back to square one of today.
What about encouraging a food co-op to come in?
Kroger holds the monopoly game in their hands and will roll however they see fit for their bottom line — not for the benefit of Pagosa Springs. What we need is to offer those incentives and more to another grocery chain to come and open in a new location either downtown or on the east end.
The Town and the County need to stop analyzing things to death and get off their butts. So far, we have received much like the federal government: committees to study everything under the sun and then they spend more to revisit the same topics over and over. Therefore, we are dead in the water like the federal government, never moving forward to solve anything.
We are bleeding — young people exiting our community and others moving out in an effort to find employment. Step out of the "box" and step ahead before there are more empty buildings. | | | | A Slap in the Face | | Mary Lou Sprowle | | | Insult to injury it could be called. Perhaps it could be referred to as a slap in the face.
Does anyone else think the lame 10% off coupon, covering one-fourth of a page in the SUN, is pitiful?
A letter from the Kroger Company saying, 'Sorry we are closing the store, but in the meantime here is a 10% OFF coupon for your use'.
Like the old country song Travis Truitt sang, "Here's a quarter. Call someone who cares." | | | |
| | | | Posted 8/25/10 | | | | Please Help Save Alberta Park | | Peter Miesler | | | Clint Jones, Village at Wolf Creek project leader from Austin, Texas (elevation 500’), says his reminted land exchange offer “is in the best interest of all parties, including the public.” How does he justify such a conclusion when he won’t even acknowledge, let alone discuss, the many problems with the VWC concept both environmental and financial; problems that tweaking boundaries won’t fix?
For instance, the bottom has fallen out of the luxury resort market. This conclusion is based on the many luxury developments experiencing serious financial setbacks along with foreclosures. Don’t take my word for it, visit this website for a long, if partial, list of links to authoritative sources.
Then, there is the, so far ignored, health implications for an overnight resort at 10,300 feet elevation where our bodies absorb a third less oxygen than at sea level. There’s a reason there aren’t other over night resorts at that elevation.
What about the water issues coming and going? From where will VWC get, transport and store the tremendous amount of water this village would demand? Currently, that entire area is an unbroken high quality, high volume watershed, upon which all down stream stakeholders depend.
Bulldozing that area will seriously damage and degrade its ability to store and purify water. Sewage treatment at this high elevation, with eight of twelve months experiencing freezing temperatures, will demand an extremely expensive, state of the art sewer treatment plant prone to unique problems, with any unanticipated discharge seriously damaging all it touches - think down stream interests.
What about the disruption to already stressed wildlife corridors and habitat loss? What about infrastructure, law enforcement, medical facilities, communications, electricity, gas, street maintenance and snow removal. How are minimal home sales going to support the tremendous expenses involved in providing these services?
Who will insure VWC against the developer going bust, as so many are doing? Who will be left holding the bag?
No Village at Wolf Creek! Please, help save Alberta Park. | | | |
| | | | Posted 8/24/10 | | | | A Broader Solution to City Market Closure | | Rick Artis | | | In response to Bob Hart’s opinion article, ‘We Need a Downtown Economic Recovery Zone’, in Monday’s Daily Post.
I agree in principle with the basic sentiment of Mr. Hart’s opinion, but think an even larger concept may be in order for both the Town and the County. For the City Market property specifically, I will be surprised if the Kroger Corporation reconsiders their position concerning the closure of an unprofitable location, no matter what the concessions. Instead of coddling to an organization with little regard for the local community, why not start the wheels turning to find another chain, national or franchise, to take over the space and provide competition for the City Market uptown store, all the while, meeting the needs of the downtown customers and taking advantage of some of the incentives being considered?
Most of us are aware of the higher prices paid in Pagosa over other towns and even more so over the small cities within a couple hour’s drive from here. Any form of competition may go further to protect the pocketbooks of Pagosans and out traveling visitors.
Should all other chains remain disinterested, perhaps these incentives can be awarded to any entrepreneur wishing to fill the space. A local grocer might fill the void. The farmer’s market might find a permanent home. An arts organization might be able to restructure the space for a small theater and gallery.
With much of the local press centered on the difficulties faced in creating or expanding businesses in Pagosa, a far-reaching incentive program and a relaxed attitude toward business development may go a long way toward changing the economic outlook for both the Town and the County. Should either governmental agency decide to get serious about developing and maintaining a viable business umbrella, the entrepreneurial spirit, too long latent in Pagosa, will begin to blossom and many of the financial concerns will begin to melt away.
Perhaps the entire County can become an Economic Recovery Zone. | | | | City Market Bail-out is a Misguided Plan | | Cynda Green | | | I vehemently disagree with Bob Hart's August 23 Opinion piece, "We Need a Downtown Economic Recovery Zone". In this piece Hart, who — go figure — is the GOP candidate for Archuleta County Commissioner, suggests that old City Market be offered a two-year exemption from paying sales tax and property tax as an incentive to keep them in business for two more years.
What Hart is suggesting is no different from Bush and Obama's "Too Big to Fail" policies that have 1) delayed and confused the inevitable bottoming out of this deep-recession and 2) plummeted this country into debt.
What about if every business in town is offered the same exemption as Hart wants to offer old City Market? That would be fair, but, like our federal government, would burden our Town and County with debt we can not sustain. So that is not an option.
And we don't need two years to wring our hands figuring out what to do. King Soopers owns the building, and you can bet your bail-out that they will not sell or lease to a business that will compete with their uptown City Market. A competitive food market will have to move into another space. As for the old City Market, maybe King Soopers can lease or donate the space to the Arts Council for a live theater space. That's one transformation I wouldn't mind. | | | |
| | | | Posted 8/23/10 | | | | Healthy Competition | | Jane Ellsworth | | | | Instead of the Pagosa Development Group pandering and pleading with Krogers to stay in the village, it would seem to me they would do far better to be seeking another small grocery chain to come into the space and replace the Old City Market. It would both provide the folks in the village access to groceries and it would also give some healthy competition to City Market which has had a monopoly on Pagosa Springs for far too long. | | | | Co-ops as a Tool of Rural Development | | Jane Butler | | | | I am not a current resident, but we are building a home south of town and looking forward to moving there next year. I've been following the stories about the City Market closure and wonder if a co-op would work there. The Colorado Rural Development Program, a division of the USDA, provides information and funding options, as well as the Rocky Mountain Farmers Union Cooperative Development Center — and many other resources on the web. | | | | Who's the Bad Guy? | | Mary Lou Sprowle | | | It is just like America , at this point. Watching the front door, while the back of the house is on fire.
Pagosa has been dwelling , for years, on keeping out big business (Walmart or any other "mart"). Meanwhile the only big business already in the community put the shaft to us.
I detest the phrase "big box", but by golly we sure could use one about now. Build it on the edge of town near 84. I could by pass the Fairfield market for a shopping trip to... whatever "mart" would be allowed to come on down!
When any of us drag our feet in making a decision, someone else makes it for us. | | | |
| | | | Posted 8/20/10 | | | | Comments on Our Visitor Guides | | Rod Proffitt | | | I have enjoyed Bill Hudson's recent series of articles on the "Official" Visitors Guide.
Although I agree with Mike Heraty regarding the creation of signature events for the community, I would also suggest TTC money is better spent on creating and enhancing community uniquenes. For instance, Colorado has a great scenic byways program, which people look for in routing their travels. Wolf Creek would be a good candidate for All-American Highway status. Money spent making Wolf Creek Pass an All-American Highway would be money well-spent.
Second, money spent developing a good public transportation system that connects lodging, restaurants, and the ski area is also a way to mitigate an issue for visitors, enhance the experience, and create a synergy between and among mainstays to the local economy. It is also a great way to get employees to and from work affordably.
When Tamra Allen and I were working on the branding for the community, we wanted to tie-in the wayfaring signage to Chimney Rock. This was watered down and delayed by the committee that subsequently picked up that project. We also felt it was important to tie-in PLPOA signage to our efforts and give credence to wayfaring signage for the historic district. A general theme arrived at in a cooperative manner that can easily be adapted to sub-communities gives cohesion to the brand, builds community cooperation and enhances the brand distinction.
Anything that advances the experience of the visitor is good for the community, and also builds pride in the community. A 160-page glossy guide is an ineffective and wasteful way to advance community objectives. Every study I have ever seen puts visitor's guides at the bottom for efficient and effective marketing. The only marketing dollars less effective are billboards and cold-calling. It is literally money misspent.
Better to trim the publication to something the size of the dining guide so it is both impressive in style, an easy and quick read for visitors, and yet still a small part of the over-all budget.
Finally, it is counter-productive to produce such a guide outside the community; if it can't be produced locally, it is not worth doing. | | |
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